Can microdosing on magic mushrooms improve mental health?
Psychedelics have become more prevalent in recent years, with claims that they can improve your mental health when taken in small doses.
unbranded – Lifestyle
If you or someone you know needs mental health resources and support, please call or text 988, the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline or visit 988lifeline.org for 24/7 access to free and confidential services.
Herb Daniels attempted suicide twice before he decided he’d try anything to make life livable again.
The 52-year-old former Green Beret had traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety, and had survived the loss of many fellow soldiers over the years, including some to suicide. He had turned to alcohol and prescribed medications after his retirement in 2017. Neither dulled the excruciating fear and anxiety.
In July 2022, Daniels booked a trip to Tijuana to become part of an experimental psychoactive treatment. He knew little about ibogaine, a psychedelic derived from the root bark of a plant from the African rainforest, and neither do many U.S. scientists. But he signed up for the treatment anyway, along with other combat veterans, compelled reports of its curative potential.
“The reality is I could only lean on hope,” said Daniels, of Tacoma, Washington, “because I really needed it to work if I was going to live.”
What to expect: Weight loss, drug prices, abortion and prescribed psychedelics: Expect reckonings in 2024
In findings published Friday in Nature Medicine, ibogaine appeared to reduce the symptoms of PTSD, anxiety and depression, and improve cognitive function from traumatic brain injuries, for Daniels and the majority of more than two dozen other special forces veterans who participated. The Stanford University study is among the first to explore the use of ibogaine to repair traumatic brain injury caused by head trauma or blast explosions.
The findings are among the earliest research on ibogaine, a Schedule I drug. They come amid growing support and federal funding for the use of psychedelic drugs to treat trauma in veterans. Ibogaine is not currently available in the U.S., so veterans must travel to Mexico and other countries for treatment.
Daniels and the others traveled to a grassroots clinic in Mexico that was providing this treatment. It was there that Stanford researchers observed and collected data on patient outcomes.
“It’s a fundamentally grassroots thing,” Dr. Nolan Williams, study author and a Stanford Medicine associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, told USA TODAY. “It was really driven by these early observations, and then on our end by a willingness to essentially believe the patient, believe the family, and really understand why people were seeing such great benefit.”
Daniels said he hopes treatments like these might aid fellow soldiers trying to recover from 20 years of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Suicide rates are higher among veterans than the general population, according to a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs report in 2023. Research indicates the suicide rate among special forces personnel is even higher.
‘Believe the patient’
The study followed 30 male special forces veterans from November 2021 to November 2022. All had a history of traumatic brain injury and had been exposed to repeated blasts that brought on subsequent psychiatric symptoms and disabilities. Twenty-three people in the study had PTSD, half met the criteria for having a major depressive disorder and 14 had an anxiety disorder.
The nonprofit Veterans Exploring Treatment Solutions, or VETS, paid for the veterans to travel and independently schedule treatment at the Ambio Life Sciences clinic. They were given ibogaine pills based on their weight, with an average dose of just over a gram of ibogaine, given under the supervision of medical staff that included doctors, nurses and EMTs, the study said.
The dose was combined with an intravenous infusion of one gram of magnesium sulfate given before the pill, meant to address ibogaine’s risks in delaying normal electrical signals that control heart rhythm, which can result in death. The Stanford study observed no side effects from the treatment, although some reported headaches and nausea.
The veterans were coached and monitored by clinicians before, during and after treatment.
Cost savings: Insulin $35 cap price now in effect, lowering costs for many Americans with diabetes
Using disability assessments on a scale of 0 to 100, veterans collectively began the program with an average rating of 30.2, meaning they had a mild to moderate disability. The average rating improved to 5.1 one month after they’d had the treatment, which meant, according to the scale, that the men no longer registered as having a disability. One month after the treatment, veterans saw an 88% decrease in PTSD symptoms; an 87% decrease in depression; and an 81% drop in anxiety. They also improved cognitive results showing better concentration, information processing, memory and impulsivity control.
The participants in the study underwent a single session of ibogaine treatment.
Multiple potential benefits, more study needed
The study authors are quick to note that their research is a first step with obvious limits: They had a small sample, just 30 men, nearly all of whom were white and all former combat veterans. Additionally, they noted, the men knew they would be getting a single dose of ibogaine, preventing comparison to results where some participants might have received a placebo.
Dr. John Krystal, the chair of Yale Medical School’s psychiatry department who is unaffiliated with the study, said the findings are very intriguing and should prompt additional research, but he cautioned that the Stanford study should be viewed as extremely preliminary. It’s hard to know the extent to which benefits in patients should be attributed to the drug versus other aspects of the treatment experience or general tendency of the patients, elite combat veterans who are resilient and willing to travel to Mexico, to bounce back quickly, he wrote in an email.
There’s existing evidence of ibogaine’s effectiveness in treating addiction and depression. But David Olson, director of the Institute for Psychedelics and Therapeutics at the University of California, Davis, said the Stanford study appears to be the first to have used the drug to address traumatic brain injury. Olson, who is not affiliated with the study, said it’s important to consider that the study participants began the treatment with the hope of experiencing changes. He noted, however, that some of the findings would not have been influenced by what subjects hoped would happen: Researchers tested neuro-cognitive effects, which cannot be influenced by a person’s wishes.
The study, he said, “demonstrated that this ibogaine treatment paradigm could rescue some of the psychological symptoms, but also some of the neurocognitive issues that you observed in patients with traumatic brain injury.”
A looming question is whether results can be replicated among patients who are not combat veterans, and if clinical trials can prove it has broader success among randomized participants. It also remains to be seen how drug companies would produce ibogaine, which has traditionally been used for ceremonial purposes and is derived from rare African plants.
‘Not fighting a war internally’
For the leaders of VETS, the nonprofit that backed the study, the results are reaffirming. Amber Capone founded VETS with her husband, Marcus, who had traumatic brain injuries after years as a football player and Navy SEAL. He first took ibogaine in 2017, and in 2019, they founded the nonprofit to help others with counseling, monitoring and follow-up for veterans hoping to enter ibogaine treatment.
“It’s allowing someone to thrive and to live, and to take the second half of their incredible lives and actually live,” Amber Capone said. “Not fighting a war overseas. Not fighting a war internally. Not fighting a war inside the walls of their own home. But actually being at peace.”
In the past, doctors have used psychedelics to address individual health issues, using psilocybin, the compound in magic mushrooms, for depression or MDMA, or ecstasy, to treat PTSD. But ibogaine is unique in its apparent ability to treat multiple conditions simultaneously, according to Williams, from the Stanford study.
“From that lens, it looks pretty unique and pretty breakthrough in its broad effects,” he said. “We need to do more to really know that. But (at) the first blush, the first kind of look at this, it looks very compelling.”
Growing federal support
This latest research, along with other findings in psychedelic treatments, has drawn bipartisan support from lawmakers. Just before Christmas, President Joe Biden signed into law the updated National Defense Authorization Act. The act includes provisions that U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, a former SEAL who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, advocated for, including $10 million in grants for research on psychedelic treatments for active-duty service members with traumatic brain injuries, PTSD and other ailments.
The overall goal, Crenshaw said, is to find safe psychedelic therapies through clinical trials. The Stanford study moves that forward, he said.
“We’ve already seen it save lives, but this is through anecdotal evidence,” Crenshaw told USA TODAY. “We need a strong, verifiable authority to do those trials.”
In the months to come, Stanford researchers plan to further analyze the data they collected to understand how ibogaine seemingly works to repair brain functions. The findings, experts said, not only have implications for emerging psychedelic treatments, but they could also expand the use of ibogaine to treat other forms of cognitive decline, such as Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia.
Since the treatment, Daniels, the former Green Beret, started his own home improvement business. He also helps other veterans navigate such treatment options. He credits VETS and the VA with giving him the tools to move forward.
Eduardo Cuevas covers health and breaking news for USA TODAY. He can be reached at [email protected].
Dr. Debi Johnson is a medical expert and health journalist dedicated to promoting well-being. With a background in medicine, she offers evidence-based insights into health trends and wellness practices. Beyond her reporting, Dr. Debi enjoys hiking, yoga, and empowering others to lead healthier lives.
